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• Record-breaking Gareth Davies enjoying rugby again after reclaiming Wales spot

  Wales scrum-half Gareth Davies says he is enjoying his rugby again during a World Cup campaign that has seen him produce record-breaking form.

  Davies’ early touchdown in the 40-6 rout of Australia set a new World Cup best of eight tries for a scrum-half.

  And it represents an impressive return to international rugby after he missed out on Wales’ South Africa tour last year, the 2022 autumn Tests and Six Nations campaign two months later.

  Wales head coach Warren Gatland’s predecessor Wayne Pivac preferred players like Tomos Williams, Kieran Hardy and Dane Blacker in the scrum-half position.

  And although Gatland was in charge for last season’s Six Nations, Williams, Hardy and Rhys Webb fought for the number nine shirt.

  Crucially, though, a door opened for the 33-year-old when Gatland named Davies in the World Cup training squad, and he has not looked back.

  He starred in the tournament warm-up victory over England and regained the number nine shirt for key Pool C wins against Fiji and Australia

  “I love World Cups,” Davies said. “I love the build-up to them.

  “It is the only time that we really get a full pre-season (with Wales). It has been a tough couple of months, but I have enjoyed it.

  “Physically and mentally, I feel like I am in the best shape of my life. I am really enjoying my rugby again.

  “We are all back to where we want to be under this management. We are fighting for each other, playing for each other and the environment is good, which is the main thing.

  “We are enjoying our time off the pitch as well. We’ve got a good bunch of boys, and it shows.”

  Davies, who made his Wales debut nine years ago and was the team’s starting scrum-half during the 2015 and 2019 tournaments, is once again excelling under Gatland’s direction.

  He scored five tries at the 2015 World Cup, then two more in Japan four years later – including an interception effort in a pool-stage win against Australia.

  “Warren has got his way,” Davies added. “It works for me and it obviously works for everyone else in the squad. It gets us all going.

  “The other coaches as well, Mike (Forshaw) with defence, Kingy (Alex King) in attack and Humphs (Jonathan Humphreys) with the forwards. We’ve had a lot of changes with coaches, and I think that’s made the difference, to be honest.”

  Wales’ crushing success against Australia secured a quarter-final place – the fourth World Cup in a row for them to achieve that under Gatland – and has set up a potential last-eight appointment with Argentina in Marseille on October 14.

  “I thought our win in 2019 against Australia in the World Cup was big, but this is right up there,” Davies said.

  “Momentum is key, especially in World Cups. We had a good week’s training preparing for the game, and I thought it showed on the pitch.

  “We obviously won’t look too far ahead of ourselves. We have got a few days off to recover, and then we will focus on Georgia the following weekend.

  “We have still got a job to do against them first, and then we will start looking at the quarter-final draw.”

• Desert Hero camp rule out Melbourne Cup bid

  Hopes of seeing a royal runner in this year’s Melbourne Cup are over after connections of Desert Hero confirmed he will not be making the trip to Australia.

  The Sea The Stars colt brought the house down when providing the newly-crowned King and Queen with their first taste of Royal Ascot success in the King George V Stakes in June, while a subsequent victory in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood earned him a shot at Classic glory in the St Leger.

  The King and Queen made the trip to Doncaster to see the William Haggas-trained three-year-old in action and while he came up short, he was far from disgraced in finishing third behind Aidan O’Brien’s Continuous and Haggas left the door ajar for a possible tilt at ‘the race that stops a nation’ on the first Tuesday in November.

  However, while Desert Hero was put through and passed the veterinary checks that would allow him to board the plane, his team have ultimately decided a journey to Australia is not in the youngster’s best interest at this stage of his career.

  John Warren, racing adviser to the King and Queen, told the PA news agency: “After giving it plenty of thought we have decided that Desert Hero won’t head to the Melbourne Cup this year.

  “It is obviously a world-class race and it was very tempting, but he is still a young horse and we will give him more time to mature.

  “He will now have a good break and William will work out a plan for next year.”

• Warren Gatland won’t let Wales get carried away after thrashing Australia

  Warren Gatland says Wales will not start looking further down the track than necessary after they cruised into the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals with a record 40-6 win against hapless Australia.

  Wales made it three successive victories in Pool C, leaving Eddie Jones’ team close to group-stage elimination.

  Gatland’s men are guaranteed to top the group if they defeat Georgia next month, setting up a likely quarter-final clash against Argentina in Marseille.

  But Gatland said: “We haven’t looked past anything yet, it has been one game at a time.

  “Australia came into this game feeling confident about winning. We felt confident to produce a performance today. I thought we were clinical.

  “Our focus will be on Georgia, a team we lost against in the autumn (last year).

  “We need to rectify that and we need to make sure we don’t drop our standards. I think these players are well aware of that – they have worked incredibly hard.

  “We have put a lot of work in the last four months as a team together. We are a momentum team, we build on confidence in terms of performances.

  “Today was an outstanding performance in terms of what we wanted to achieve. We were blowing a bit at half-time, but I thought we went out and controlled the second half fantastically well.”

  Wales overcame the early loss of injured fly-half Dan Biggar to boss Australia in every key department and coast home through tries from scrum-half Gareth Davies, centre Nick Tompkins and captain Jac Morgan, while Biggar, who kicked an early conversion, saw his replacement Gareth Anscombe boot 23 points.

  It was Wales’ record win against Australia, overtaking a 25-point margin in 1975, and former England boss Jones will be left to face the music as the Wallabies lurch towards World Cup oblivion.

  On Biggar, Gatland added: “Dan has stretched his pec. I haven’t spoken to the medics, but I spoke to Dan and they are saying it is probably a couple of weeks.

  “We have got 13 days’ break before we take on Georgia, so that potentially rules him out of that match, just to recover. It’s not a significant injury, just a pec strain.”

  Anscombe, who landed six penalties, a drop-goal and conversion after going on for Biggar in the 12th minute, said: “We talked a lot this week about family and the people we care about.

  “We talk about the red wall, and to concede only six points against Australia is just remarkable.

  “Dan Biggar means so much to this team, and I knew I had to just come on and do my role, and that was all I was focused on.

  “The boys were really calm and we got off to a really good start. Our boys up-front were outstanding, they dominated the set-piece and I was just able to keep rolling forward.”